Swampy Cree language

Swampy Cree
ᓀᐦᐃᓇᐍᐏᐣ / Nêhinawêwin
Spoken in	Canada
Region	Ontario
Native speakers	4,500  (1982)
Language family	Algic Algonquian Central Cree Swampy Cree
Language codes
ISO 639-3	csw
Linguasphere	62-ADA-ac, 62-ADA-ad

Swampy Cree (sometimes known as Maskekon or Omaškêkowak) is a dialect of the Cree language complex. Swampy Cree is spoken in a series of communities in northern Manitoba, central northeast of Saskatchewan along the Saskatchewan River and along the Hudson Bay coast and adjacent inland areas to the south and west, and Ontario along the coast of Hudson Bay and James Bay.

A division is sometimes made between West Swampy Cree and East Swampy Cree. Communities recognized as West Swampy Cree include: Shoal Lake; The Pas; Easterville [Chemawawin Cree Nation]; Grand Rapids Barren Lands; Churchill; Split Lake; York Factory; Fox Lake; Shamattawa (all in Manitoba); and Fort Severn, Ontario. Communities recognized as East Swampy Cree are: Weenusk, Ontario; Attawapiskat, Ontario; Albany Post, Ontario; and Kashechewan, Ontario; and Fort Albany, Ontario.^[1] The Cree spoken at Kashechewan also shows Moose Cree influence.^[2] It is one of the western n-dialects of Cree. It has 10,000 speakers.

Notes

1. ^ Rhodes, Richard and Evelyn Todd, 1981, p. 53, p. Fig. 1
2. ^ Ellis, C. D., 1995, p. xiv

References

• Ellis, Clarence Douglas. 1981. Spoken Cree. Revised Edition. Edmonton: Pica Pica Press. ISBN 0-88864-044-7
• Ellis, Clarence Douglas. 1995. âtalôhkâna nêsta tipâcimôwina: Cree legends and narratives from the West Coast of James Bay. Text and translation. Edited and with a glossary by C. Douglas Ellis. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press. ISBN 0-88755-159-9
• Rhodes, Richard and Evelyn Todd. 1981. “Subarctic Algonquian languages.” June Helm, ed., The Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 6. Subarctic, pp. 52–66. Washington, D.C.: The Smithsonian Institution.
• Wolfart, H.C. and Janet F. Carroll. 1981. Meet Cree: A guide to the Cree language. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press. ISBN 0-88864-073-0

External links

• Ethnologue entry for Swampy Cree
• Native Languages: A Support Document for the Teaching of Language Patters – basic language patterns for Ojibwe (Manitoulin Ojibwe/Ottawa "CO" and Lac Seul Ojibwe "WO") and Cree (Swampy Cree "SC").
• Path of the Elders – Explore Treaty 9, Aboriginal Cree & First Nations history.